Dr Geoff Cooper
Reader
Qualifications: BA (London), PhD (Open University)
Email: g.cooper@surrey.ac.uk
Phone: Work: 01483 68 6976
Room no: 25 AD 03
Further information
Biography
Geoff Cooper graduated from Goldsmiths College in sociology. After obtaining a post-graduate qualification in computing, and designing computer based training packages for a software house, he did a Ph.D. on the discourse of human-computer interaction. Before joining the department he worked at Brunel University, investigating changes in research culture. He has been at Surrey since 1994, and served as Head of Department from 2002 to 2006.
Research Interests
Intellectual interests fall into two broad areas, the sociology of scientific knowledge and technology, and theoretical and methodological issues in social science. More specific research topics include: deconstruction and sociology; the formation, organisation and significance of intellectual and disciplinary boundaries; the social shaping of technology, particularly mobile telecommunications; sociological dimensions of energy use; changing research culture and forms of accountability; the mediation of scientific knowledge and its effects.
He is currently a co-investigator on the ESRC funded inter-disciplinary research group on Research on Lifestyles, Values and Environment (RESOLVE), and the co-editor of the collection ‘Sociological Objects: reconfigurations of social theory, published by Ashgate.
Publications
Journal articles
- . (2012) ''What I've found is that your related experiences tend to make you dissatisfied': Psychological obsolescence, consumer demand and the dynamics and environmental implications of de-stabilisation in the laptop sector’'. Sage Journal of Consumer Culture, 12 (3), pp. 347-370.
- . (2012) 'What I've found is that your related experiences tend to make you dissatisfied: Psychological obsolescence, consumer demand and the dynamics and environmental implications of de-stabilization in the laptop sector'. Journal of Consumer Culture, 12 (3), pp. 347-370.
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(2012) 'A disciplinary matter: critical sociology, academic governance and interdisciplinarity'. SAGE Sociology, Full text is available at: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/342993/
Abstract
Calls for interdisciplinary research practice are an increasingly ubiquitous feature of contemporary academic life. However, whilst the claims made for its benefits, or limitations, are diverse in character and provenance, it is possible to identify one significant source as being related to modes of academic governance. This relation has significant effects, but is also obscured by the heterogeneity of wider claims. A critical analysis of the relation is therefore needed in order to assess its significance for sociology: however, the mode of governance in question itself poses challenges to the idea or project of sociological critique. This article therefore attempts firstly to clarify the specificity of interdisciplinarity as a feature of academic governance, and secondly, drawing on Boltanski’s recent reformulation of sociological critique, to begin a critical analysis of its significance for sociology within this particular governmental context.
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(2012) 'Unravelling the threads: discourses of sustainability and consumption in an online forum'. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Environmental communication, 6 (1), pp. 101-118.Full text is available at: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/231713/
Abstract
This article analyzes an online discussion that followed an article published by UK environmental activist and journalist George Monbiot in The Guardian online newspaper. The analysis addresses the ways in which participants in an online forum debate responded to the tensions and contradictions between lifestyle, consumption, and sustainability highlighted in the original article. The discursive construction of class, green political orientations, and identities; visions of “the good life”; and appeals to religion and science are highlighted throughout the analysis—as are the discursive strategies for positioning self, other, and audience in the debate. The argument emphasizes the heterogeneity of discursive positioning and reflects on the role of social media in the politics of consumption and sustainability, especially given the inherent reflexivity of web forums as online communicative forms.
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(2012) 'Unravelling the threads: discourses of sustainability and consumption in an online forum'. Routledge, Taylor& Francis Group Environmental Communication: a journal of nature and culture, 6 (1), pp. 101-118.Full text is available at: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/342994/
Abstract
This paper analyzes an online discussion that followed an article published by UK environmental activist and journalist George Monbiot (2007) in The Guardian online newspaper. The analysis addresses the ways in which participants in an online forum debate responded to the tensions and contradictions between lifestyle, consumption and sustainability highlighted in the original article. The discursive construction of class, green political orientations and identities, visions of “the good life”, and appeals to religion and science, are highlighted throughout the analysis – as are the discursive strategies for positioning self, other and audience in the debate. The argument emphasizes the heterogeneity of discursive positioning, and reflects on the role of social media in the politics of consumption and sustainability, especially given the inherent reflexivity of web forums as online communicative forms.
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(2012) ''Are we sitting comfortably?
Domestic imaginaries, laptop practices, and energy use''. Pion Environment and Planning A: international journal of urban and regional research, 44 (11), pp. 2629-2645.doi: 10.1068/a44403
- . (2007) 'Epistemology, structure and urgency: the sociology of financial and scientific journalists'. SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH ONLINE, 12 (3)
- . (2006) 'Spinning science: The commercialisation of nanotech and financial news'. 2006 NSTI Nanotechnology Conference and Trade Show - NSTI Nanotech 2006 Technical Proceedings, 1, pp. 572-575.
- . (2000) 'Making connections: Children, technology, and the national grid for learning'. SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH ONLINE, 5 (3), pp. U64-U80.
- . (2000) 'Making connections: Children, technology, and the national grid for learning'. Sociological Research Online: an electronic journal, 5 (3)
- . (1999) 'Do artefacts have ambivalence? Moses' bridges, Winner's bridges and other urban legends in S&TS'. SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD SOCIAL STUDIES OF SCIENCE, 29 (3), pp. 433-449.
- . (1999) 'Using Foucault's methods'. SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH ONLINE, 4 (2), pp. U192-U193.
- . (1999) 'Being constructive: Social constructionism and the environment'. BRITISH SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOC SOCIOLOGY-THE JOURNAL OF THE BRITISH SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION, 33 (2), pp. 297-316.
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(1998) 'Simulating difference: ethnography and the relations of intellectual production'. ROUTLEDGE BRITISH JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY, 49 (1), pp. 20-35.doi: 10.2307/591261
- . (1997) 'Thought styles: Critical essays on good taste'. SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH ONLINE, 2 (4), pp. U107-U108.
Books
- . (2009) Sociological Objects: Reconfigurations of Social Theory. Ashgate Publishing
Book chapters
- . (2009) 'The Objects of Sociology: An Introduction'. in Cooper G, King A, Rettie R (eds.) Sociological objects: Reconfigurations of Social Theory Ashgate Publishing Article number 1
- . (2009) 'Conceptualising social life'. in Gilbert GN (ed.) Researching Social Life London : Sage
- . (2009) 'Audit, appropriation and the opening of theory'. in Cooper G, King A (eds.) Sociological Objects: reconfigurations of social theory Aldershot : Ashgate
Teaching
Teaches courses on sociological theory at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and supervises a number of PhD students.
Professional Activities
Member of the British Sociological Association, the Society for the Social Study of Science, and the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST). Formerly a member of ESRC’s Sociology, History, Anthropology and Resources (SHAR) research college, examiner for the ESRC’s open competition for PhD studentship awards, and treasurer of EASST. Regular reviewer for a number of journals including: Sociology; Theory, Culture and Society; British Journal of Sociology; Social Studies of Science; Science, Technology and Human Values; and Information, Communication and Society.
